


Code of Honor

by Ailette



Category: Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Imported, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-11
Updated: 2008-08-11
Packaged: 2018-06-05 02:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6686263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailette/pseuds/Ailette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something is wrong with Jarvis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Code of Honor

Something was wrong. Steve looked down at his waffles. They were _burnt_. Jarvis never burnt food. Slightly worried, he peeked at the other plates at the table, all filled with different dishes, but none of them were burnt. Well, it was hard to tell _his_ breakfast was burned from just looking at it. There were two inches of powdered sugar strategically placed over all the black spots, effectively making the un-burnt parts too sweet to eat. Still, everyone else was too busy eating to talk so the rest of the food had to be pretty good.  


“Um, Jarvis—”  


“Yes, sir?”  


Steve flinched at the icy look the butler gave him. “The waffles…”  


“Are you suggesting there is something wrong with my cooking skills, _sir_?” The last word was pronounced so sarcastically, Steve was honestly impressed by Jarvis unmoving expression of politeness.  


“No—no, of course not!” He found himself stammering.  


“Then I suggest you finish them before they get cold. It would be such a waste of food if you didn’t finish them,” Jarvis said with the briefest of dark smiles. Steve shuddered.  


He left the table as soon as he had choked down the rest of the inedible stuff on his plate, planning on searching out Tony. As usual, the man had refused to come up from the garage to eat anything. It was also possible he hadn’t noticed it was morning yet. Tony wasn’t the friendliest person without any sleep—he should take down coffee with him as a peace offering. As he moved towards the coffee machine, Jarvis appeared next to him, holding out a dish cloth.  


“Jarvis, we’ve got a dishwasher,” he felt compelled to point out.  


“Why, sir, I’m aware that _Master Stark_ owns a dishwasher. I’m just afraid it isn’t working at the moment.”  


Steve barely suppressed the urge to glare at the man. The machine had been working fine just half an hour before breakfast started. “I wanted to get down to the garage, so if you could ask someone else—”  


“I’m afraid you’re the first one to finish your breakfast, sir.” Clint, who had been about to get up, quickly sat down again and stole Wanda’s half roll with ham. She just frowned at him before she duplicated the roll with a flick of her hand. Looking pleased with herself, she continued to eat.  


“…alright.” It couldn’t take long anyway, he told himself. After all, the last load of clean dishes was still in the dish washer.  


Jarvis pointed him to a large pile of plates, vases, glasses—was that the old crystal tumbler from Tony’s office? He hadn’t seen that thing in _years—_ and every bit of cutlery from the mansion, down to the silverware. _Such an evil, evil man_.  


When he had finally polished the last silver fork to Jarvis satisfaction, the other Avengers were long gone. Shooting the Briton a suspicious glance, he hastily picked up this morning’s newspaper and the freshly prepared mug of coffee. When the butler did nothing to stop him, he fled down to the garage. Was it his imagination or did an evil cackle come from the kitchen?  


He didn’t bother to knock on the door but went straight into Tony’s workshop, holding out the steaming mug in front of him. Knocking didn’t soothe the morning crankiness, but caffeine usually did.  


Luckily, Tony was already up. Or, more likely, _still_ up. “Hey, you,” he greeted absently, entirely focused on the blueprint in front of him. “Can this wait? I kind of have a deadline to meet in three hours.”  


Furrowing his brows, Steve decided not to point out that this project was most likely not Tony’s job but one of his poor employees who once again now got nothing to do. Sometimes he wondered why Tony bothered to hire people at all when he seemed to be doing—or at least re-doing—every single project anyway. “I brought coffee,” he said instead.  


Tony whirled around, a bright smile on his face. “Why didn’t you say so? Good morning, oh knight in shining armor.” He pecked him lightly on the mouth before he took both the mug and the paper from him.  


If he hadn’t been used to this by now, Steve might have been hurt. But for now, there were more important things to discuss. “Tony, we have to talk about Jarvis.”  


“We do?” Tony frowned at the headline while happily sipping his coffee. What reporters got away with these days…  


Steve awkwardly shuffled his feet. “Well, at breakfast… please don’t laugh, but he behaved… odd. My waffles were burned, he made me do an insane amount of dishes and he glared at me whenever he thought no one else was looking.”  


Tony choked on his coffee. He hastily set the mug down on his workbench, laughter rippling through his body. He was shaking so badly, Steve was worried about him for a second. “He—Steve—he—the paper…,” he stammered between giggles, holding out The Daily Bugle to him.  


Steve grabbed the paper, straightening it to properly read the head line.    


 

**_ Stark Dumped – Captain  _ ** **_ America _ ** **_ Is Now Dating Actress Scarlett Johansson! _ **

_ We all knew it wouldn’t last long, but now Cap finally caught up with us! His experimental phase is finally over and Stark is involuntarily back to being the best catch on the bachelor market. You want evidence? One of our photographers caught  _ _ America _ _ ’s icon with the lovely Scarlett Johansson leaving the romantic restaurant “Tavern on the Green” yesterday… _

He gaped at the paper, unable to read any more of this utter nonsense, and not even sparing a glance for the no doubt photo-shopped ‘evidence’. “I swear I have never been to that place in my life and I don’t even know who that woman _is_ —”  


Tony was holding out a hand, still stifling his laughter. When he finally calmed down enough to speak again, his eyes were shining with tears. “I know, I know. That’s not why you had to read it. That,” he motioned over to the offending article, “is the reason for Jarvis behaviour.”  


“I don’t understand.”  


“It’s… Look, my first girlfriend broke up with me. I was fourteen then and sixteen when the two of us got back together. Jarvis always made her help with the house chores, let her food burn just a little, accidentally forgot to take her jacket… He never forgave her for breaking up with me in the first place.” His grin gained some warmth. “He’s pretty protective. You should have seen him handling Sunset Baine when she tried to enter a private party held at my house.”  


Steve groaned. “I can’t believe Jarvis actually thinks I would cheat on you.”  


Thoughtfully tapping his index finger against his chin, Tony looked at him. “Isn’t today laundry day?”  


A little baffled by the sudden change of topics, he found himself nodding. “Yes, it is. Why are you asking?”  


“Oh, it’s nothing,” Tony dismissively waved his hand. “I’m sure you’ll look better in pink briefs than white ones anyway.” 

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/17784.html)  
> Beta: freakydarling  
> A/N: In order to improve my writing a little and keep on writing through this year, I randomly generated 100 words. This is the result for word 77: Honor. :)


End file.
